TOKYO, September 2 (RIA Novosti) - The number of Japanese nationals, who may have been abducted in North Korea, has risen to 883, Kyodo News Agency reported Tuesday, citing a high-profile security official.
Japan cannot exclude the possibility of the abduction of a further 23 Japanese nationals by Pyongyang, making the total number 883, the country’s National Public Safety Commission Chairman Keiji Furuya was quoted as saying.
Earlier, Furuya said there have been 860 Japanese citizens, missing and possibly kidnapped and taken to North Korea over the last few decades.
“The ball is now in North Korea’s court. . . . We are saying that there could be as many as 860 abductees. The government’s policy is to retrieve every single abductee,” he told the reporters Monday.
Tokyo officially accuses Pyongyang’s secret services of kidnapping some 17 Japanese citizens since the 1970s, but it is suspected that the real number is much higher. North Korea has confirmed only 13 cases. Following the former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s visits to North Korea, five abductees have been freed. Pyongyang said the other eight have died, but Tokyo considers the claims untrue and continues the demands to release its citizens.
In early July, Japan lifted some of the economic sanctions against North Korea in exchange for an investigation into the disappearance of its nationals. Pyongyang vowed to carry out a further probe.
